On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 1:16 PM, James Salsman jsalsman@gmail.com wrote:
when "ticketed", this is usually to control numbers when space is limited. This model works pretty well and makes them popular events; indeed, they're one of our most visible public activities. I don't see where the benefit would come from selling - or raffling, auctioning, etc- tickets.
We should be treating editing wikipedia as one of the most profoundly influential things a person can do in society, because there are pretty good reasons to believe that it is. We should present editathons led by skilled wikipedians as the premier cultural events that they are. We are recruiting the people who will teach those who are not in school, who answer questions and direct those in need of assistance to the best resources. Wikipedia is the most monumental feat of literature that civilization has yet produced. The idea that art or sculpture exhibits should raise more money than training new editors is, frankly, preposterous, and stems from the same fallacies which keep the rest of the developed world from achieving teacher salaries on par with Korea's.
It would invariably deter attendees and reduce uptake
I propose that this be measured, because there is reason to believe that transitioning to a half-auction, haff-raffle model could increase public interest for a variety of reasons: acknowledging them as the literary events that they are, the novelty (which may or may not last), the opportunity for anyone to mingle with those who were able to afford tickets if an when such events do become popular, etc. If at some point an auction raises an unexpectedly large amount of money, other cultural institutions might start to take notice, offer to host editathons, or even start their own.
This is completely ignoring the problem of people who cannot afford to either (a) buy a /ticket/, on top of everything else they are already expected to buy, or (b) spend time waiting for a totally random and arbitrary decision about whether they won one in a raffle to schedule things. Consider me definitely in category B.
Let me also express my amusement and profound disquiet at the descriptor of an editathon as a "literary event". We're already claiming Wikipedia "breaks theory" - do you not think we have enough of a sense of importance? ;p
why would making them more exclusive be a *good* thing?
"Exclusive" has both positive and negative connotations. Exclusive access to important sources is good for those who have access, but bad for everyone else. The half-raffle aspect keeps everyone involved without precluding the possibility of the events paying for themselves, paying all the bills in advance, and not risking low turnout or exceeding the size of the venue, which very substantially lowers the risk of organizing and hosting them. Presumably that could serve to make them easier and make them more likely to be held.
I worry that running an auction and a raffle for each - or even some - editathons would be a lot of work
I think software support should be easy, or even administration by email. Any auction bid, even 0, will enter the raffle, and auction bids would be accepted as payment from half of the available seats. When fewer nonzero bids than half the seats are received, then they would all be accepted and the remaining seats would be raffled.
You'd be paying volunteers, which in this country would make them staff, which means they'd need a minimum wage, taxes, and even a pension.
Isn't there a way to put the requirement of taking care of those tasks and expenses in the job responsibilities? Aren't there service agencies who do that as a flat fee for the mass commercial market?
there's no shortage of volunteers to run editathons in the UK
I wish other countries could say the same. But compare editathons to, for example, poetry slams, or street protests, in any country. Which are more common and which do we need more of? I am asking that someone measure the proposed way which may be able to substantially increase their number.
Again, you haven't shown how there's currently a problem paying for events. Unless this really is a "we should pay people to act as instructors", in which case, I don't even know what to do with that. Pay expenses, yes - see my comments about diversity above. Actively pay them? I'm not seeing the need. What I'm seeing is a proposal which would be massively exclusionary, add a layer of paperwork on top of these events that does not currently exist - or more, if you're suggesting (as below) that we get some kind of commercial entity, or MULTIPLE commercial entities, to handle actually administrating this influx of part-time employees, and all of this out of the idea that requiring raffle software and participants to pay money and editathon organisers to either sign contracts or do pension forms will make it /more/ likely that there will be volunteers to run them and /more/ likely that people will show up.
This is not practical. I'm not sure why we're debating it in such detail when that's the one thing most of us seem to agree on.
Best regards, James
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